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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. I ' 

UNITED STATES OF /mERICA. | 






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EULOGY 



UPON THE 



CHARACTER AND SERVICES 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN, 

ITtttc IJrcsibcnt of tbc ^tmtcb States. 

DELIVERED BY INVITATION OF THE AUTHORITIES OF THE 
CITY OF TAUNTON, 

©It tbe &ctiX%mx oi ilfi IJafmital Jfast, 

June 1, 1865. 



By SAMUEL L. CEOCKER, Jr. 



BOSTON: 

PRINTED BY JOHN WILSON AND SON. 
1865. 



L45q 



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Cr0!3 



CITY OF TAUNTON. 



Board of Aldermen, June 7, 1865. 

Resolved, That the thanks of the City Council be tendered to Samuel L. 
Crocker, Jr., Esq., for his truthful and eloquent Address, upon the character of 
Abraham Lincoln, delivered on the National Fast Day. 

Sent down for concurrence. 

J. M. CUSHMAN, Cihj Cltrk. 



Common Council, June 7, 1865. 

Concurred in. 

B. A. GALLIGAX, Clerk. 

In Common Council. 

Ordered, That Samuel L. Crocker, Jr., Esq., of Boston, be requested to 
furnish a copj^ of his Address, deliA-ered before tlie City Government on tlie 
occasion of the late National Fast, for publication. 

Sent up for concuirence. 

- B. A. GALLIGAN, Clerk. 

In Board of Aldermen. 
Concurred in. 

J. M. CUSHMAN, Clerk. 



EULOGY. 



By solemn appointment of the President, and by com- 
mon consent of the people, wherever in onr country 
its flag is respected, this day will be observed, in 
commemorating the nation's bereavement at the loss of 
its beloved chief-magistrate, " in contemplation of his 
virtues and in sorrow for his sudden and violent end." 

If it were merely to give formal and fitting expres- 
sion to the universal grief occasioned by his death, or 
to signify our abhorrence of the dastardly crime that 
deprived us of his life, sufficient, and more than suffi- 
cient, had already been done. Every mark of respect 
that imagination could devise, or pomp and ceremonial 
exhibit, had been paid to his memory ; while in every 
language and from every tongue have been heard the 
utterances of indignant execration at this monstrous 
and unprovoked assassination. 

The sad tidings of his death filled the land with con- 
sternation and gloom. The customary pursuits of busi- 
ness and of pleasure were spontaneously laid aside. 
The bright symbols of the nation's joy at its recent 



deliverance Yrom the hands of its enemies gave place 
to the sadder symbols of the nation's grief In the 
emphatic language of the call that brings us here to-day, 
"our country had become one great house of mourning." 

Scarcely had the honored remains of our lamented 
President reached their final resting-place, v^hither they 
had been followed by thousands and tens of thousands 
of his countrymen, amid the lamentations and benedic- 
tions of a whole nation in affliction, ere the echoes of 
our grief came back to us from across the waters, 
accompanied with grateful expressions of sympathy for 
our bereavement, and more grateful attestations of re- 
spect for his memory. " Nothing like it," says the 
"London Times," "has been witnessed in our generation. 
His death has stirred the feelings of the public to their 
uttermost depths;" while the "Spectator" likens the 
impression produced to that of "a sudden private 
grief." 

If these varied tributes of veneration and respect, 
which, at home and abroad, have been paid to his 
memory, were in reality undeserved ; if they were the 
extravagant, though not unnatural, manifestations of a 
grief occasioned by the tragic circumstances of his 
death ; if, under the impulse of a mere sympathetic 
excitement, we had accorded to him a character which 
he did not in reality possess ; if his private life and 
public career will exhibit little that is worthy of our 
admiration and regard, — then would this day, so sol- 
emnly set apart for the " contemplation of his virtues," 
be more " honored in the breach than in the observ- 
ance." 



But if this spontaneous tribute of affection and re- 
spect, which has followed the announcement of his 
death wherever it has been proclaimed, is justly his 
due ; if a careful scrutiny of his life and character will 
disclose nothing inconsistent with a Christian patriot 
and an upright man ; if he administered the great 
office which he held during the most critical period in 
the history of the country, faithfully and well, — then may 
we fitly unite, under the sanctions of our holy religion, 
as we are invited this day to do, " in contemplating the 
virtues of the good man who has been removed, and in 
the expression of sorrow at his sudden and violent 
end." 

In a farewell address to his fellow-townsmen of 
Springfield, Illinois, made by Mr. Lincoln on the day 
of his departure for the seat of government, after a 
touching allusion to the sadness he experienced in leav- 
ing that home where he had lived for a quarter of a 
century, where his children were born, and where one 
of them lies buried, he remarks, — 

" I know not how soon I shall see you again. A 
duty devolves upon me which is, perhaps, greater than 
that which has devolved upon any other man since the 
days of Washington. He never would have succeeded 
except for the aid of Divine Providence, upon which he 
at all times relied. I feel that I cannot succeed without 
the same Divine aid which sustained him, and on the 
same Almighty Being I place my reliance for support ; 
and I hope you, my friepds, will all pray that I may 
receive that Divine assistance, without which I cannot 
succeed, but with which success is certain." 



And when, after four years of arduous labors and 
harassing cares, success had crowned his efforts, in the 
hour of national exultation and joy, he reminded those 
who had assembled to tender him their congratulations, 
of their obligations to Him the great giver of all victory ; 
and informed them that " a call for National Thanks- 
giving was then being prepared, which would soon be 
promulgated." Thus, in the very first public utterance 
that fell from his lips, as he went forth to assume the 
weighty responsibilities of his great office, and in this, 
the very last speech he ever addressed to his country- 
men, as well as in all the varied measures he adopted, 
and which are destined, as we fondly hope, to accom- 
plish so much for the amelioration of mankind, and 
for the safety, honor, and welfare of the country, we 
uniformly find, that faith in God and reliance upon his 
Providence was the mainspring of his action. 

In contemplating this day the many virtues of our 
lamented President, let us not fail to give due promi- 
nence to this, the first and foremost of them all. 

That Divine aid for which he so affectingly besought 
the prayers of his fellow-townsmen, on leaving that 
home to which he was never permitted to return alive, 
"without which he felt that he could not succeed, but 
with which success was certain," and which we cannot 
doubt was largely vouchsafed him, he did not expect 
to receive by any miraculous interposition. It w^as only 
by the faithful employment of all the means placed at 
his disposal, by the deliberate and judicious exercise 
of the faculties with which he was endowed, and by 
regulating his policy in accordance with moral law and 



the precepts of Christianity, that he ventured to trust 
that success would crown his efforts. He felt that it 
was presumptuous and dangerous for any man rashly to 
assume to interpret God's will. " I am approached," 
he replied to a delegation who were urging for his 
immediate action certain measures which he deemed 
deserving of the most deliberate consideration, — "I am 
approached with the most opposite opinions and advice, 
and by religious men who are equally certain that they 
represent the Divine "Will. It is my earnest desire to 
know and to do the will of Providence in this matter. 
I am not, however, to expect a direct revelation. I 
must study the plain, physical facts in the case, ascer- 
tain what is possible, and learn what appears to be wise 
and right." 

Next to faith in Divine Providence, Mr. Lincoln's 
reliance for success was in the integrity and capacity of 
the American people. He believed that their patriotism 
and intelligence were sufficient to bear them success- 
fully through all the dangers and trials to which they 
might be exposed. He leaned confidently upon them 
for support. No man better appreciated than he, that 
our Government was instituted for their benefit ; and no 
man was ever more successful than he in interpreting 
their will. He felt, that, in a period of unexampled 
political embarrassments, where no precedents were 
presented for his guidance, that the deliberate judgment 
and sober common sense of the people would sustain 
all measures that the exigencies of the Government 
might render necessary or expedient ; and in this he 
was never disappointed. 



8 



He believed it to be the determination of the people, 
that the Union should be preserved ; and that, as incident 
thereto, all necessary power should be used for the 
accomplishment of this end. While many were lei- 
surely indulging in speculations on the strict constitu- 
tionality of this measure or of that, and w^ere strenuously 
insistmg upon precedents in a crisis of the nation's life 
in itself entirely unprecedented, Mr. Lincoln unhesitat- 
ingly acted upon a view of his constitutional rights and 
duties sufficiently broad and .practical to meet the exist- 
ing exigencies of the Government. But, in all these emer- 
gencies, he endeavored, most studiously and earnestly, 
to ascertain the will of the people ; and most wisely and 
judiciously did he carry it into effect. No surgeon ever 
watched with deeper solicitude the pulse of his patient, 
than Mr. Lincoln the throbbings and pulsations of the 
popular heart. 

It was this feeling of mutual dependence and reliance 
between the people and their chief magistrate, which 
bore the nation successfully through the dangers and 
trials to which it was so often exposed. The President 
believed in the people, and rested upon them as his 
support; and the people had confidence in the Presi- 
dent, and looked trustingly to him for guidance. 

To this thorough appreciation of our republican form 
of government, which he so admirably defined in his 
speech at Gettysburg as a " Government of the people 
by the people, for the people," was added a profound 
and unqualified faith in the principles set forth in the 
Declaration of Independence. He lived at a time when 
these principles were beginning to be lost sight of, — 



when attempts to explain away their meaning, and 
lessen their value, were frequently made. It was 
openly contended by the advocates of slavery, that the 
great truths therein proclaimed were applicable only to 
men of a particular color, and belonging to a particular 
race. Others, among whom was a distinguished citizen 
of our own State, regarded this immortal declaration of 
principles and of rights as a mere " revolutionary mani- 
festo," and its calm enunciations of fundamental truths 
as " sounding and glittering generalities ; " while, in the 
senate-chamber of the nation, it had been denounced as 
" a self-evident lie." 

Mr. Lincoln, in a masterly manner, exposed the 
sophistry of the reasoning by which the social and 
political inequalities among men were urged as a 
standing contradiction to the assertion " that all men 
are created equal," and refuted with remarkable clear- 
ness the assumption, that the principles of the Declara- 
tion were to be limited to the circumstances of the 
particular struggle in whose defence they were pro- 
claimed. 

" I think our fathers in that notable instrument," he 
says, "intended to include all men; but they did not 
intend to declare all men equal in all respects. They 
did not mean to say all were equal in color, size, or 
intellect, moral development or social capacity. They 
defined with tolerable distinctness in what respect they 
did consider all men created equal, — ' equal in respect 
to certain inalienable rights, among which are life, 
liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.' This they said, 
and this they meant. They did not mean to assert the 

2 



10 



obvious untruth, that all were then actually enjoying 
that equality, nor yet that they were about to confer it 
immediately upon them. In fact, they had no power to 
confer such a boon. They meant simply to declare the 
right, so that the enforcement of it might follow as soon 
as circumstances should permit. They meant to set up 
a standard maxim for free men, which should be familiar 
to all, and revered by all, constantly looked to, and con- 
stantly labored for, and, even though never perfectly 
attained, constantly approximated towards ; and thereby 
constantly spreading and deepening its influence, and 
augmenting the happiness and value of life to all peo- 
ple, of all colors, everywhere." Mr. Lincoln's devotion 
to this great principle, as thus understood and inter- 
preted, was not with him a mere sentiment, but a firm 
and deeply rooted principle of action. His conviction of 
its truth and practical importance was as profound as his 
very nature. He kept it constantly in view ; and, in his 
public career, his policy was guided and controlled by it. 

In a few sentences, uttered in Independence Hall, 
Philadelphia, just prior to his inauguration, and which, 
in view of what has since transpired, we recall with 
peculiar interest, he reiterates in the following emphatic 
language his devotion to this principle : — 

" I have often inquired of myself what great principle 
or idea it was that kept this confederacy so long together. 
It was not the mere matter of the separation of the 
colonies from the mother-land, but that sentiment in 
the Declaration of Independence which gave liberty 
not alone to the people of this country, but, as I hope, 
to the world, for all future time. It was that which 



11 

gave promise, that in due time the weight would be 
lifted from the shoulders of men. Now, my friends, 
can this country be saved upon that basis'? If it can, I 
shall consider myself one of the happiest of men if 
I can help to save it. If it cannot be saved upon that 
principle, it will be truly awful. But, if this country 
cannot be saved without giving up that principle," he 
continues, as if under a momentary premonition of the 
destiny that awaited him, " I was about to say, / 
would rather he assassinated on the spot than surrender 
it I have said nothing," he adds, " that I am not will- 
ing to live by, and, if it be the pleasure of Almighty 
God, to die by." 

Let us thank God that he lived to behold the country! 
saved through his instrumentality, and saved by thej 
perfect fulfilment of that principle of universal liberty^ 
announced at its birth; that with his assasination per-W 
ished forever the last lingering hope of a system, in \ 
view of which the immortal framer of the Declaration of 
Independence " trembled for his country, when he re- 
membered that God was just ; " — whose demoniac spirit, 
in its mad attempt to build up an empire of which 
eternal servitude should constitute "the chief corner- 
stone," plunged the country into all the horrors of 
civil war, starved by inches the defenceless prisoners 
that fell into its hands, deliberately plotted the burning 
of peaceful cities and the spreading of the noisome 
pestilence that " walketh in darkness and destroyeth in 
the noonday," and, having failed in its parricidal at- 
tempt' at the life of the nation, directed the shot of the 
assassin at its revered and honored head. 



12 



Mr. Lincoln's faith in republican government, and 
devotion to the principles of the declaration of our 
independence, naturally placed him in the position he 
ever occupied, of uncompromising opposition to the 
extension of slavery. His natural conservatism of char- 
acter, and his unwavering allegiance to the Constitution 
and laws of the country, prevented this opposition from 
ever assuming even an apparent attitude of hostility to 
the General Government. While no one entertained 
a more profound conviction of the evils of slavery, or a 
more earnest desire that all men everywhere might be 
free, he measured with conscientious fidelity the extent 
of his authority, and the limits of his responsibility. In 
speech and action, he invariably recognized the para- 
mount obligation of unqualified allegiance to the Con- 
stitution of the United States. His oath in its support, 
as he himself assures us, was taken " with no mental 
reservations, and with no purpose to construe it by any 
hypercritical rules." 

Prior to his nomination for the Presidency, his views 
had led him to act in concert with the great Whig party 
of the nation, so long as it had an existence ; and he 
more than once took pride in describing himself as a 
Henry-Clay Whig. He belonged to what was known 
as the conservative antislavery wing of that party. He 
held that Congress had no right, that the General Gov- 
ernment had no right, to interfere with slavery in the 
States, — that it was purely a local institution, to be 
regulated and controlled exclusively by the several States 
where it existed. He believed that a law for the return 
of fugitives from service, however repugnant it might 



13 



be to the prevailing sentiment in the Free States, was 
within the spirit of the Constitution, and should be will- 
ingly acquiesced in by all loyal citizens. Holding these 
views of his duty under the Constitution, during his 
brief congressional career and in his numerous public 
addresses to his fellow-citizens, he never acted or spoke 
otherwise than in entire consistency with them. Thus 
far, and no farther, could he go. He held with Mr. 
Webster and other prominent statesmen of his party, 
that Congress, having exclusive jurisdiction over the 
common territories of the Union, and the spread of 
slavery being prejudicial to the welfare of the country, 
and in itself a moral, social, and political evil, it was 
under every obligation to prohibit its extension. He 
uniformly gave expression to his views in language of 
singular moderation, and indicating that his advocacy 
of them was the result of sincere convictions of duty, 
and not of hostility to that section of the country where 
opposite views were entertained. During a heated 
political campaign, we find him indulging in the follow- 
ing language of counsel to his political associates : — 

" It is exceedingly desirable, that all parts of this 
great country shall be at peace and in harmony, one 
with another. Let us Republicans do our part to have 
it so. Even though much provoked, let us do nothing 
through passion or ill-temper. Even though the South- 
ern people will not so much as listen to us, let us calmly 
consider their demands, and yield to them, if, in our 
deliberate view of duty, we possibly can." 

Mr. Lincoln was among the first to discern, in the 
rapid aggressions and extravagant demands of the slave 



14 



power attendant upon the repeal of the Missouri Com- 
promise, the danger that was threatening our free insti- 
tutions. He beheved that that danger could only be 
averted by a determined resistance, on the part of the 
people of the Free States, to the further extension of 
slavery. He saw that all compromises had failed ; that 
the issue whether slavery should be circumscribed within 
the limits of the States where it already existed, and thus 
placed in the way of ultimate extinction, or should be 
suffered to spread itself under the protection of the 
National Government into the Territories, and ultimately 
into all the States, had become a practical one. He 
believed in what Mr. Seward subsequently denominated 
" an hrepressible conflict." Some months prior to its 
announcement by Mr. Seward, in his famous speech at 
Rochester, Mr. Lincoln had given expression to this 
view, in the following forcible language : — 

" It is now five years since a policy was instituted for 
the avowed object, and with a confident promise, of 
putting an end to slavery agitation. Under the opera- 
tion of that policy, the agitation has constantly aug- 
mented. In my opinion, it will not cease until a crisis 
shall have been reached and passed. 'A house divided 
against itself cannot stand.' I believe this Government 
cannot endure permanently half slave and half free. I 
do not expect the Union will be dissolved ; I do not 
expect the house to fall : but I do expect it will cease 
to be divided. It will become all one thing, or all the 
other. Either the opponents of slavery will arrest the 
further spread of it, and place it where the public mind 
shall rest in the belief that it is in the course of ultimate 



15 



extinction, or its advocates will push it forward until 
it becomes alike lawful in all the States, old as well as 
new. North as well as South." 

Sooner, and in a different way from what either he 
or Mr. Seward had anticipated, the inevitable conflict 
came. It came in an announcement from the South, 
that the will of the people, fairly and constitutionally 
expressed, should no longer constitute the supreme law 
of the land. It came in threats of treason and rebellion. 
It came in the monstrous assertion, that slavery was the 
" bulwark of freedom," and should constitute " the 
corner-stone of the Government." It was soon written 
upon the page of history, in letters of fire and of blood. 
It plunged the country into a civil war of unequalled 
magnitude and unrelenting atrocity ; and, in its last 
expiring gasp, it attempted the assassination of both 
its promulgators. The crisis was passed, the conflict 
ended, and the nation was for ever free. 

Let us not lose sight of the fact, that this much-depre- 
cated agitation of the question of slavery was, in the 
nature of the case, inevitable. The people of both sec- 
tions of the country accepted it as a practical question, 
and joined on the issue of its extension. " Groping for 
some middle ground between the right and the wrong," 
Mr. Lincoln considered " as vain as the search for a 
man who should neither be a living man nor a dead 
man." The conflict could only be averted by a with- 
drawal of the demand on the one side, or a yielding to 
it on the other. There was no middle ground upon 
which to stand, except that of entire indifl'erence. The 
South believed it right, and earnestly strove for its 



16 



recognition and extension. The North believed it to be 
a wrong, and could not, consistently with such a belief, 
be indifferent to its extension. Both parties appealed 
to the people. If both had abided by the result, the 
fiery ordeal through which we have passed would have 
been averted. 

Such, in brief, were the leading political opinions 
entertained by Mr. Lincoln, when he was called to 
the highest office in the gift of his countrymen. He 
had had but little experience in public affairs. His 
public career was limited to a single term of service in 
the lower brianch of the national Congress. In his own 
section of the country, however, he was not without 
reputation as a vigorous debater, a cogent reasoner, 
and a thoroughly honest and upright man. His famous 
debates with Mr. Douglas had given him a national 
reputation; and he had long before been esteemed as 
one of the most effective political speakers in the coun- 
try. There are those in this assembly who will remem- 
ber with pleasure a visit he once made to this town, 
and his address to its citizens upon the issues involved 
in an important presidential election. That he owed 
his nomination to the Presidency, in no small measure, 
to what is termed " availability," will be freely con- 
ceded ; but this availability consisted chiefly in his known 
conservatism and his unquestioned integrity. On a 
comprehensive review of his administration, there are 
few, who — whatever opinions they may entertain upon 
particular measures — will not cheerfully concede to- 
day that no member of the party to which he belonged, 
either in public or private life, has exhibited, on the 



17 



whole, during the terrible struggle through which he 
has successfully led us, so just an appreciation of the 
great work to be accomplished, and the difficulties in 
the way of its successful fulfilment, so uniform and 
hopeful a confidence in ultimate success, such patience 
in adversity and such calmness in triumph, and such 
wise, cautious, and practical administrative abilities, as 
has Mr. Lincoln ; while there are thousands of his 
countrymen who believe, that he was specially raised up 
by Divine Providence, for the accomplishment of the 
great work of the salvation of his country. 

Mr. Lincoln entered upon the duties of his office, 
determined to avert, if possible, the impending catas- 
trophe of civil war. He made every concession, short 
of an entire surrender of the principle upon which the 
people had passed, for the purpose of conciliation. 

While Mr. Jefferson Davis was giving utterance to 
the following language, — 

" The time for compromise is past ; and we are now 
determined to maintain our position, and make all who 
oppose us smell Southern gunpowder and feel Southern 
steel," — 

Mr. Lincoln was urging, — 

" In my view of the present aspect of affairs, there 
need be no bloodshed or war. I am not in favor of 
such a course ; and I may say, in advance, that there 
will be no bloodshed unless it be forced upon the Gov- 
ernment, and then it will be compelled to act in self- 
defence." 

This policy of conciliation thus foreshadowed, pre- 
vious to his inauguration, was more fully' developed 



18 



in his inaugural address. He disclaimed emphatically 
any purpose or wish to encroach upon any of the rights 
of the Southern people ; he tells them, that, in those 
districts where opposition to his administration is so 
great as " to prevent competent resident citizens from 
holding the federal offices, there the offices shall remain 
unfilled ; " he reminds them that the Constitution under 
which they have so long prospered remains still un- 
changed, and that nothing valuable can be lost by tak- 
ing time ; and he implores them to pause and deliberate, 
before precipitating the country into a civil war. He 
expresses the belief that " intelligence, patriotism, Chris- 
tianity, and a ffi'm reliance on Him who has never yet 
forsaken this favored land, are still competent to adjust, 
in the best way, all our present difficulties. . . . 

" In your hands, my dissatisfied fellow-countrymen, 
and not in mine, is the momentous issue of civil war. 
The Government will not assail you. You can have no 
conffict without being yourselves the aggressors. You 
have no oath registered in heaven to destroy the Gov- 
ernment, while I shall have the most solemn one ' to 
preserve, protect, and defend it/ I am loath to close. 
We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be 
enemies. Though passion may have strained, it must 
not break, our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of 
memory, stretching from every battle-field and patriot 
grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over 
this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, 
when again touched, as surely they will be, by the 
better angels of our nature." 

In this spirit, Mr. Lincoln entered upon the great 



19 



duties of his office. To a steadfast reliance upon Divine 
Pro^ddence, faith in repubHcan institutions and in the 
integrity and patriotism of the people, faith in those 
principles of liberty upon which the Government was 
founded, and unqualified loyalty to the Constitution, 
President Lincoln added a combination of personal 
qualities which eminently fitted him for its successful 
discharge. 

I need hardly refer to that straight-forward honesty 
which has so long been synonymous with his very name. 
It w^as well for us, that, at a crisis in our national affairs 
which called for the exercise of extraordinary powers, 
the confidence of the people in the integrity and up- 
rightness of their chief magistrate was never shaken or 
impaired. As constitutional commander-in-chief of the 
army and navy of the United States, in a civil war of 
unparalleled magnitude, he wielded powers almost unlim- 
ited in their variety and extent. An executive patron- 
age greater than that possessed by all his predecessors 
combined, was placed at his disposal. It were idle to 
deny, that treachery and frauds were often perpetrated 
against the Government by those professing to be its 
friends. With opportunities for their commission so 
innumerable, it could hardly have been otherwise. 
But, from the beginning to the close of the great 
struggle through which he led us, never so much even 
as a suspicion ever entered the mind of an honest 
man, that Mr. Lincoln was a gainer, directly or indi- 
rectly, to the extent of a single farthing, from the thou- 
sands of millions of dollars placed at his disposal ; or 
that he ever made an appointment or adopted a measure 



20 



that he did not honestly believe would minister to the 
public good. When we consider the low standard of 
public morals which characterized the age in which he 
lived, his inflexible integrity, in itself, entitles our late 
President to a high position among the public men of 
the country. 

President Lincoln was not more esteemed by his 
countrymen for his honesty of purpose and integrity 
of character, than for the discreet judgment and plain 
common sense which he so constantly exhibited in the 
administration of his office. He was indeed frequently 
accused by his political opponents, and at times by 
members of his own party, of indecision of purpose and 
slowness of action. He was, unquestionably, deliberate 
and cautious in arriving at a judgment, as well he might 
be, in view of the momentous responsibilities that 
depended upon his action. He was accustomed " to 
ponder well, and consider," before deciding upon impor- 
tant measures. He cheerfully entertained the various 
deputations who waited upon him, representing the 
different views and ideas that prevailed in the com- 
munity, and would give to all a patient hearing. He 
w^ould seek to shape his policy and guide his action in 
accordance with events, and not upon the mere theories 
of a purely speculative philosophy or an impatient and 
restless philanthropy. If he was at times slow in his 
movements, he was always sure. He seldom had occa- 
sion to retrace his steps. A policy once deliberately 
adopted was strenuously maintained, and successfully 
carried out. He seems to have possessed the happy 
faculty of discovering the right time in which to do the 
right thing. 



21 



Mr. Lincoln was at times censured for placing too 
little reliance upon his own individual judgment, and 
for yielding too readily to the advice of his political 
friends. We think a careful study of his public career 
will satisfy any fair-minded person of the utter ground- 
lessness of such an opinion. 

The issuing of his Proclamation of Emancipation, 
within a week after his conference with the deputation 
of Chicago clergymen, in which he had compared such 
a measure to the Pope's bull against the comet, has been 
most frequently urged in substantiation of this charge. 
It is at least a striking illustration of his ability to see 
both sides of a question, that his remarks on that occa- 
sion have always been regarded by the opponents of 
the measure as the strongest argument in their behalf 
that had ever been adduced. 

Aside from the question of his constitutional right to 
issue such a proclamation, in the exercise of the power 
vested in him as Commander-in-chief of the Army 
and Navy, in time of actual war, and purely as a war 
measure, of which Mr. Lincoln never entertained a 
doubt, he presents in this conversation, in the clearest 
and strongest manner, every practical objection to this 
measure as a question of policy, which its warmest 
opponents had conceived. 

But as bearing upon the question of his inconsistency 
or sudden change of opinion, in subsequently issuing 
the proclamation, it is sufficient to observe that he con- 
cludes this very conference with a remark, that he had 
stated these objections only to indicate the difficulties 
that had thus far prevented his action, and adds emphat- 
ically, — 



22 



" I have not decided against a proclamation of liberty 
to the slaves, but hold the matter under advisement. I 
can assure you, the subject is on my mind more than 
any other. Whatever shall appear to be God's will," he 
adds in conclusion, indicating that devout reliance upon 
Divine aid, " without which," as he had stated at the 
outset of his career, " he could not succeed, but with 
which success was certain," — "whatever shall appear 
to me to be God's will, I will do." And in that famous 
proclamation, the issuing of which I presume no one 
to-day regrets, which settled for ever the question of 
slavery in this land, paving the way for its abolition, 
by constitutional amendment, in those remaining States 
to which its terms were inapplicable, in language 
closely resembling that of the great Declaration of In- 
dependence, of which, indeed, it was the complete ful- 
filment, he says, — 

" Upon this act, sincerely believed to be an act of 
justice warranted by the Constitution upon military 
necessity, I invoke the considerate judgment of man- 
kind, and the gracious favor of Almighty God." 

It would seem as though Mr. Lincoln, in this practice 
of stating to those who were urging his hasty and 
immediate action, upon measures demanding the utmost 
deliberation, the strongest arguments agaijist their adop- 
tion, had purposely in view the twofold object of defend- 
ing that calm and judicious consideration he was wont 
to bestow upon all subjects dependent upon his action, 
and also of convincing the people, upon whose support 
he ultimately relied, that his final decision had not been 
taken, without a full and just appreciation of the various 



23 



objections that could be urged against it. A failure to 
appreciate this peculiarity, and to accept as his settled 
conviction of duty what was merely thrown out by way 
of objection or argument, has doubtless been the occa- 
sion of the opinion by many entertained of his insta- 
bility and vacillation. 

That he was not lacking in firmness, and reliance 
upon his own judgment, may be seen from an incident 
which occurred in one of the darkest hours of that 
critical period from which our country has just emerged. 
At a time when military disasters were following our 
armies in rapid succession, in our vain and apparently 
hopeless search for competent commanders, blame was 
extensively attached to his Cabinet advisers, and the 
clamor for a reconstruction of the Cabinet became loud 
and deep. An influential congressional Committee, em- 
bracing nearly every republican senator, waited upon 
the President to urge an immediate change. This request 
was seconded by the influence of the press of the country, 
and by the restless impatience of the people. It may be 
questioned whether so great a pressure was ever before 
brought to bear upon a public officer. And yet this 
President, who was regarded by so many at the time as 
deficient in requisite firmness, and too easily influenced 
by the wishes of his political friends, resolutely refused 
to make the desired change. 

" What the country especially needs at this time," 
was his reply, " is victory in the field. A Cabinet of 
angels, if it were possible to procure one, could not 
give us this, without competent commanders of our 
forces." It is evidence of the wisdom of his decision. 



24 



that, when experience disclosed who the competent com- 
manders were, military success everywhere attended our 
arms, while the Cabinet remained unchanged. 

But whatever of hesitation or indecision he may at 
any time have manifested, in reference to measures 
which were advocated and opposed with equal sincerity 
of conviction by equally loyal men, he never for a 
moment lost sight of the great end, to the attainment of 
which all measures and policies were the mere instru- 
mentalities, — the restoration of the Union, and the 
overthrow of the Rebellion. To this great work he de- 
voted every energy of his nature. Neither the impulses 
of philanthropy, nor the persuasive entreaties of friends, 
could divert his attention from this paramount object of 
his administration. Especially was his action upon the 
subject of slavery uniformly regulated and controlled by 
this guiding principle of his career. Upon no subject 
is his record more clear and unmistakable than upon 
this. " My paramount object is to save the Union, and 
not either to save or destroy slavery. "What I do about 
slavery and the colored race, I do because I believe it 
helps to save the Union ; and what I forbear, I forbear, 
because I do not believe it would help to save the Union. 
I shall do less, whenever I shall believe what I am 
doing hurts the cause ; and I shall do more, whenever I 
believe doing more will help the cause." 

While this principle ever controlled his official action, 
his conviction of the moral and political evils of the 
system was no less clearly proclaimed. 

" If slavery is not wrong, nothing is wrong. I can- 
not remember when I did not so think and feel. But I 



25 



have never understood that the Presidency conferred 
upon me an unrestricted right to act officially upon this 
judgment and feeling." And, in one of his last allu- 
sions to this subject, he observes, " I aver, to this day, I 
have done no official act in mere deference to my 
abstract judgment and feeling on slavery." 

The time has not yet arrived for judging fairly and 
impartially of the proper estimate to be placed upon the 
peculiar characteristics of Mr. Lincoln's mind. The 
rough side of his nature was so prominently exposed to 
our view, that it may be well questioned whether we 
have as yet done any thing like justice to the actual 
strength and power of his understanding. A careful 
perusal of his various speeches prior to his nomination 
for the Presidency, as well as of his numerous addresses 
and messages while in office, cannot fail to produce a 
conviction, that he is entitled to no mean rank among 
the public men of the country. Nowhere have the 
principles which he represented been stated with 
greater clearness, or sustained with greater power of 
reasoning ; while his State-papers supply in strength and 
terseness whatever they may lack in polish or elegance. 
Unlike many of his day and generation, he never used 
language to conceal thought. Whatever opinions he 
may entertain, he is invariably clear and intelligible in 
their expression. As a debater, he was ever prompt and 
ready, of quick wit and irresistible humor, with a quaint- 
ness of illustration, an inexhaustible supply of anecdote, 
and a depth and seriousness of conviction, which never 
failed to gain for him a favorable hearing from oppo- 
nent as well as friend. 

4 



26 



But the qualities which most endeared Mr. Lincoln 
to his countrymen, and won for him the admiration of 
the world, were the singular equanimity of his disposi- 
tion, and the extreme gentleness of his nature. Mr. 
Seward once said of him, that he was the best man he 
ever knew. It may indeed be questioned if he ever had 
a personal foe. Throughout his public career, he was 
neither despondent under adversity, nor elated by suc- 
cess. In the darkest hour of the nation's affliction, he 
was composed and hopeful. He discharged the duties 
of his great office with an unwavering faith in Divine 
Providence and an unfaltering belief in ultimate success. 
In spite of the defiant boasts of Southern leaders, the 
taunts of the foreign press, and the oft-repeated prophe- 
cies of political opponents, " that the war would never 
close under his administration," he lived to behold the 
surrender, upon terms of his own dictation, of the great 
army of the Eebellion, and the precipitate flight of its 
chosen leaders. 

In the hour of triumph, he claimed no share of the 
nation's gratitude. He who had so often assumed the 
blame of others' short-comings, forgot to remember, that 
the substantial conditions of this final surrender, which 
had filled the heart of the nation with joy, had been 
penned by his own hand. To his friends who called 
to congratulate him on the great result, he says, — 

" No part of the honor for the plan or execution is 
mine. To General Grant, his skilful officers, and brave 
men, it all belongs." 

If any thing could add to the enormity of the crime 
that occasioned his death, it would be the fact, that. 



27 



while the final preparations for his assassination were 
being matured, he was diligently employed in devising 
schemes of amnesty and pardon for the participants in 
the Eebellion. At a cabinet meeting held on the last 
evening of his life, as we are oificially informed, " he 
was cheerful and hopeful, and spoke kindly of General 
Lee, and others of the Confederacy.'' 

The removal of such a man at such a time, and in 
such a manner, is one of those mysterious events in his- 
tory that is wrapt in a darkness too impenetrable for 
human vision to fathom. While we may not presume 
to refer it, however reriiotely, to the agency of an 
all-righteous Providence, we may yet derive comfort in 
the assurance, that our beloved President was removed 
within the omniscient governance of that Being, " with- 
out whom not even a sparrow falleth to the ground." 

Let us not too hastily deduce the moral of his death. 
Let us not, in our just indignation, read in it a lesson 
at variance alike with every principle of our religion, 
and with those qualities of his character which have 
especially endeared him to the memory of mankind. 

Having been successfully borne through the fiery 
furnace of this protracted conflict, under the mild and 
Christian sway of our late chief magistrate, let us not, 
in our final triumph, initiate a harsh and vindictive 
policy towards a disarmed and helpless opponent. 

While public justice may. demand, that the more 
guilty instigators of rebellion, and those who in its 
prosecution have outraged every principle of civilized 
warfare, shall receive a punishment commensurate with 
their crime, let amnesty, reconciliation, and pardon be 



28 



freely offered our countrymen of the South. Thus, in 
our imitation of his character, we shall best illustrate our 
appreciation of his worth. 

With the commemorative observances of this day, we 
conclude the varied series of affectionate tributes we 
have paid to his memory. We take leave of him at his 
honored grave. 



After life's fitful fever, he sleeps well : 

Treason has done his worst ; nor steel nor poison, 

Malice domestic, foreign levy, nothing 

Can touch him further." 



But the people in whose service he so faithfully la- 
bored, and in whose sacred cause he was so cruelly 
slain, will continue to cherish his memory, and to revere 
his name. Already have they accorded him a place in 
their affections, shared only by him who was " first in 
war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his country- 
men." 

For his successor in office, for his cabinet ministers, 
and for all others in authority, let us invoke " that 
Divine assistance without which they cannot succeed, 
but with which success is certain," that they may have 
a right judgment in all things ; and that the blessings 
of unity, peace, and concord may be speedily restored 
to our beloved country. 



EULOGY 



UPON THE 



CHARACTER AND SERVICES 

OF 

ABRAHAM LINCOLN, 

^"atc prcsibcut of tl;c Mnitcb § fates. 

DELIVEKED BY INVITATION OF THE AUTHORITIES OF THE 
CITY OF TAUNTON, 

©IT % &ttmxan jof t^^ |latiand Jfast, 

June 1, 1865. 



By SAMUEL L. CROCKER, Jr, 



BOSTON: 

PRINTED BY JOHN WILSON AND SON. 
1865. 



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